The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-05-14
JUDGE COOLEY'S VIEWS.
He Talks of the Business and Railroad
Situation.

he Talks OF the Business and Railroad
Situation.
A Detroit (Mich) dispatch to the New
York Times says: Judge Cooley, President
of the Interstate Commerce Commission, is
spending a short time at his home in Ann
Arbor, and has given to a reporter some
impressions with reference to the business
and railroad situation that are of interest.
"How did you find the South during your
recent visit therer he was asked.
Different. Things were getting on diff
ferently: Atlanta is very prosperous
place. Mobile is not going ahead The peo-
ple-of Mobile believe that the railroad dis
examinations have checked the growth of
their city, and doubtless the transportation
rates have had much to do all over the
South. But | doubt if that could be helped.
During the past few years q great change
has come over the method of doing business.
Margins of profit have become so small that
time has become the most important element
in shipments. For this reason water COM
petition with railroads has constantly been
growing less and less. This change is severe
ly felt in the South, where the cities have
been built on navigable streams. Water
freights still regulate the railroad charges
at competing points; but, as / said, the in
| tiuence OF water communication is constant
ly decreasing
us this true on the great lakesg'
1.-The influence of lake competition is still
great but it is not so great as it once was
There is Detroit sugar merchant land there
are others like HIM who complains that the
| interstate commerce law has ruined his
business. New York merchants now sell to
interior points in the State and ship direct
leaving Detroit out in the cold"
lis that result due to the law, or to the
general conditions of buSinesS?
"As to that l can only say that changes
in business are constantly going on There
was time when every town in Michigan
had its tannery. Now there are few tan
neries in the State. These changes are con-
stantly going on, without any reference to
the interstate law or any other law
HAS the question of what constitutes a
line of railroad come before the commits
sionT'
This much has been decided. The rate
from Chicago to Liverpool is the same,
whether the freight goes by the way of Bos-
ton or New York, yet the rate from Chicago
to Boston is and must be greater than from
Chicago to New York"
"Then the steamer part of the way counts
as part of the lineg"
Yes; for in no other way is expectation
possible at Boston. She has not the facilities
that New York has"
"Can you say whether, ON the whole. the
workings of the law have begun to remedy
the evils complained OFF,
THAT would be matter of opinion. One
man would think one way and another
would have a different view. My opinion
would be only that of one person, and /
must decline to give it."
"When will the commission meet againgn
ave shall be in Washington OH Monday
at the latestn
Whatever may be Judge Cooley's personal
opinion of the new law, its advantages and
its defects, he is evidently determined that
so far as lies in his power it shall be enforced
according to both its letter and its spirit.
No man realizes more fully than he the mag
nitude of the railroad problem which is now
pressing for solution, and it is evident from
his talk that he is determined to give all his
ability and energy to obtain some reasona-
BILE and just mode OF living between the peo-
pie on one hand and the railroads on the
other No man recognizes more clearly than
he that the interests of the two are at bot
tom identical. If he sees defects in the
present law he probably thinks with Grant
that the quickest and surest remedy for the
evils of a law is TO be secured by enforcing
the law as it stands. At the same time he
realizes the Importance, as in the case of
Boston, of using the discretion embodied in
the law itself TO prevent cities from suffer
ing needlessly.